and the Bishops were the most Godly Faithful Peaceable company of Bishops since the Apostle's times In Preface to the Second Plea we offered Arch-Bishop Usher's Model and when his Majesty would not grant us that he prescribed the Episcopacy of England as it stood with little Alteration this we joyfully and thankfully accepted as a hopeful means of a common Conformity and Concord See more p. 3. of his Apology and p. 161. I shewed that there are in Directory p. 832. such general Officers in the Church as an Army that is headed by the general himself and a Regiment by the Colonel and a Troophy a Captain there was no parity then in the Church-Officers In the Preface to the Five Disputations p. 9. Two sorts of Episcopacy are allowed first such as St. Hierome says were brought into the Church for a Remedy against Schism the Bishop of this Constitution was to preside over Presbyters and without him nothing was to be done in the Church that was of Moment S. 58. of Church Hist The Second is that which succeeds the Apostles in the ordinary parts of Church-Government while some Senior Pastors have the care of Supervising many Churches as the Visitors had in Scotland and are so far Episcopi-Episcoporum having no constraining Power of the Sword But a Power to admonish and instruct the Pastors and to Regulate Ordinations Synods and all great and common Circumstances that belong to Churches For if there were one Form of Government in which some Pastors had such extensive Work and Power as Timothy Titus and the Evangelists had as well as Apostles we must not change it without Proof that Christ himself would have it changed Many wise Men think that the Presbyterians rejecting all Episcopacy setting up unordained Elders and National Churches headed by National Assemblies are divisive and unwarrantable as their making by the Scots Covenant the renouncing of Episcopacy to be the test of National Concord was divisive Page 72. of the Third Defence Part the last Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hoper Jewel Davenant Usher Moreton Abbot Hall Potter Charleton were all Pious as well as Learned Bishops and so were many Conformist Ministers Sibs Preston Fenner Bolton Whately Dent Crook Pike Stock Stoughton Taylor c. My Judgment is that a Peace with the Divines of the Episcopal Judgment is much to be desired and earnestly endeavoured If it be Objected that he calls the Bishops their Silencers and Persecutors p. 104. of his Apology he says no Bishops have Silenced us by Spiritual Government that we know of but only as Barons by the Secular Laws to which some of them gave their Votes for Mr. Baxter acknowledgeth all did not As for Bishops viz. a Diocesan ruling all the Presbyters but leaving the Presbyters to rule the People and consequently taking to himself the sole or chief power of Ordination but leaving censures and absolution to them except in case of Appeal to himself I must needs say that this sort of Episcopacy is very ancient and hath been for many Ages of very common reception through a great part of the Church And if I lived in a place where this government were established and managed for God I would submit thereto and live peaceably under it and do nothing to the disturbance disgrace or discouragement of it You may see how far Mr. Vines and Mr. Baxter did agree in the notion of a Bishop over many Presbyters Of which Grotius in his Commentary on the Acts and particularly chap. 17. saith that as in every particular Synagogue many of which were in some one City in Jerusalem 480. there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such was the Primitive Bishop And doubtless the first Bishops were over the community of Presbyters as Presbyters in joynt relation to one Church or Region which Region being upon the increase of Believers divided into more Churches and in after-times those Churches assigned to particular Men yet he the Bishop continued Bishop over them still For that you say he had a negative Voice that is more then ever I saw proved or I think ever shall for the first 200 Years and yet I have laboured to enquire into it That makes him Angelus Princeps not Angelus Praeses as Dr. Reinolds saith Calvin denies that and makes him Consul in Senatu or as a Speaker in the House of Parliament which as I have heard that D. B. did say was but to make him foreman of the Jury As touching the Introduction of ruling Elders such as are modelled out by Parliament my judgment is sufficiently known I am of your Judgment in the point There should be such Elders as have power to Preach as well as Rule On this Mr. Baxter reflects p. 353. Though Mr. Vines here yield not the negative Voice to have been de facto in the first or second age nor to be de jure yet he without any question yielded to the stating of a President durante vitâ if he prove not unworthy which was one point that I propounded to him and I make no doubt but he would have yielded to a voluntary consent of Presbyters de facto not to ordain without the President And the difficulties that are before us de facto in setting up a Parochial Episcopacy which he mentioneth I have cleared already in these Papers shewing partly that the thing is already existent and partly how more fully to accomplish it The Instances which he gives are in the Episcopacy of the Protestant Churches in Poland from Adrian Regenvolscius Hist Eccles Sclavon l. 3. p. 424. N. B. Whereas from the first Reformation of the Churches in the Province of the lesser Polonia it hath been received by Use and Custom that out of the Elders of all those Districtus Divisions which are 36 in Number one Primate or Chief in Order who is commonly called Superintendent of the Churches of lesser Poland and doth preside over the Provincial Synods be chosen by the Authority Consent and Suffrage of the Provincial Synod and that he be inaugurated and declared not by imposition of Hands to avoid the suspicion of Primacy and the appearance of Authority and Power over the other Elders only by Benediction and fraternal Prayers and by reading over the Offices which concern this Function and the Prayers of the whole Synod for the sake of Government and good Order in the Church of God c. The other instance is of the Churches of the Bohemian Confession who have among the Pastors of the Churches their Conseniors and Seniors and one President over all related by the same Regenvolscius p. 315. The Elders or the Superintendents of the Bohemian and Moravian Churches c. are for the most part chosen out of their Fellow-Elders and are Ordained and Consecrated to the Office of Seigniory by Imposition of Hands and Publick inauguration c. Mr. Baxter dislikes our Species of Diocesan Bishops because of their Chancellors which is very groundless for the power of Legislation the
them How Forms may be imposed publickly on the Congregations of Believers and on the Ministers yea though the Forms imposed be worse than the exercise of their own gifts though among us no Man be forbidden to use his own gifts in the Pulpit The Pharisees long Liturgy it is like was in many things worse than ours yet Christ and his Apostles often joyned with them and never condemned them I shall now only add that the Lord's Prayer is a Form directed to God as in the Third Person and not to Man only as a directory for Prayer in the Second Person it is not Pray to God your Father in Heaven that his name may be Hallowed his Kingdom come c. But Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name c. And it seems by the Disciples words that thus John taught his Disciples to pray Luke 11. 1. and we have in the Scripture the mention of many Set Forms of Service to God which therefore we may well use And I desire the Reader again to Note that though Prayer was corrupted by the Pharisees yet Christ usually joyned in their Synagogues Luke 14. 17. and never medled with our controversie about the lawfulness of Set Forms This Mr. Baxter infers from Calvins note on Matth. 6. before the Preface to the Defence Pag. 76. Of Concord I constantly joyn with my Parish Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the Common-Prayer to be better incomparably than the Prayers or Sermons of many that I hear As for the Common Prayer it self I never rejected it because it was a Form or thought it simply unlawful because it was such a Form but have made use of it and would again in the like case He that separates upon the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy and the badness of our Ministry doth separate upon a reason common to almost all of the far greatest part of the Churches See the Defence p. 54. The defects of the Liturgy and the faults of those by whom we suffer are easily heightned even beyond desert Defence p. 68. Apology p. 9. Having perused all the Foreign and Antient Liturgies in the Bibliotheca Patrum I doubt not but our own is incomparably better than any that is there That which is not unlawful in it self is not therefore unlawful because it is commanded Obedience to Superiors is our duty and not our sin unless in sinful things p. 152. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of Obedience to our Pastors We are indangered by divisions principally because the self-conceited part of Religious people will not be ruled by their Pastors but must have their way and will needs be rulers of the Church and them But pleasing the ignorant Professors humors is a Sin that shews us to be too humane and carnal and hath always sad effects at last It is a high degree of pride for persons of ordinary understandings to conclude that almost all Christs Churches in the World for Thirteen Hundred Years at least have offered such Worship to God as that you are obliged to avoid it and all their Communion in it and that almost all the Catholick Church on Earth at this day is below your Communion for using Forms Mark Is it not more of the Women and Apprentices that are of this mind than of old experienced Christians I think till we have better taught even our godly People what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Church of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order We are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The People of the New Separation so much rule their Ministers that many of them have been forced to forsake their own judgments to comply with the violent Labour to maintain the Ordinances and Ministry in esteem The Church is bound to take many a Man as a True Minister to them and receive the Ordinances from him in Faith and expectation of Blessing upon promise who yet before God is a sinful invader an usurper of the Ministry and shall be condemned for it How much more then to respect their lawful Bishops and Pastors Of Lay-Elders For Lay-Elders As far as I understand the greatest part if not three for one of the English Ministers are of this mind That unordained Elders wanting power to Preach or Administer Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's appointment Of this number I am one and Mr. Vines was another In the Worcester Agreement Printed 1653. Mr. Baxter declared that neither Scripture nor Antiquity knew of any such Officers as Lay-Elders In the Third Defence p. 58. It was notorious that the Parliament yielded to Presbytery to exclude Episcopacy because they had no other way to uphold their Wars without which they had no way to hold up themselves but by help of the Scots My first Book Viz. the Preface to Saints Rest disclaims Lay-Elders Pag. 109. to Hinckly Of Bishops Page 832. of Mr. Baxter ' s Directory Q. 56. Mr. Baxter tells you in the Margin of those Reasons for a larger Episcopacy That in the Apostles Days there were under Christ in the Universal Church many general Officers that had the care of gathering and over-seeing Churches up and down and were fixed by stated Relation unto none And most Christian Churches think that though the extraordinary Gifts Privileges and Officers cease yet Government being an ordinary part of their Work the same Form of Government which Christ and the Holy Ghost did settle in the first Ages tho' not with the same extraordinary Gifts and Adjuncts were settled for all following Ages 1. Because we read of settling that Form viz. general Officers as well as Particular but never of any Abolition 2. Because if we affirm a Cessation without Proof we seem to accuse God of Mutability as setting a Form of Government for one Age only 3. And we leave room for audacious Wits to question other Gospel-Institutions as Pastors Sacraments c. 4. It was general Officers that Christ promised to be with to the end of the World Matth. 28. 20. And in this Premonition he says he doth not dispute the Lawfulness of Arch-Bishops over parochial-Parochial-Bishops as Successors to the Apostles and other general Officers of the first Age in the ordinary continued parts of their Office And in his Plea for Peace p. 263. Some of us incline much to think that arch-Arch-Bishops i. e. Bishops that have over-sight of many Churches with their Pastors are lawful Successors of the Apostles in the ordinary part of their Work So also First Plea p. 35. and of his accepting two parts of Episcopacy not varying the Species in the Preface to the second Plea In Church-History p. 37. and in Plea for Peace p. 66. the Bishops in Cyprian's time had the best ordered Churches in the World
People commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the Congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the People do it Of Bowing at the Name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the Name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive Scandalous or offensive I will bow at the Name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names which we Translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our Translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are Subordinate to Christ in his Priestly Office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Heb. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Rom. 12. 1. and Heb. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any Question oa Scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their Followers that all Antiquity is on their side The Lord's Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion-Table c. Q. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the Rails to Communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these Circumstances but only general rules for Edification Unity Decency and Order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw Men to Popery or to incourage Men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away Dogs keeping Boys from sitting on it and the professed Doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real Corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the Place Name Scituation and Rail is unsound for we Assemble there to Communicate in and according to the professed Doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private Opinion and Error of the Minister Whether we shall receive the Lord's Supper at a Table or in our Seats Whether the Table shall be of Wood or Stone Round or Long or Square Whether it shall stand on the East or West side of the Temple or in the middle Whether it shall have Rails or no Rails All these are left to Humane Prudence As for standing at the reading of the Gospel Page 148. he says If I live where Rulers peremtorily command it as a signified consent to the Gospel I would obey them rather than give offence And for kneeling when the Decalogue is read That the thing it self is lawful is past doubt and if it be commanded and the omission would be offensive I would use it though mistaken Persons were present because I cannot disobey nor differ from the whole Assembly without a greater hurt and scandal than seeming to harden the mistaking Person and because I could and would by other means remove that Persons danger as from me by making him know that it is no Prayer And the rather because in our times the Minister may in the Pulpit tell the People the contrary We must not lightly differ from the Churches where we live in such things I like best to kneel in Prayer and Confession of Sins To stand up in Praises to God at Singing and Reading Psalms of Praise and other Hymns to set at Hearing the Word because the body hath necessity of some rest Of the Creed Q. 139. What is the Use and Authority of the Creed Is it of the Apostle framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the Baptismal Covenant And for the satisfation of the Church that Men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or Composition of the Words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted Baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the Three Articles of Christ's own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach Men to vary the matter And Lastly No doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the Essentials of Religion were by the Tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any Book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Q. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound Doctrine and fitted to the Peoples Edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's Book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scripture or other necessary Church duty 4. So they
be not read read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Q. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Non-conformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful Office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical Obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear them to them not as Officers claming a Divine Right in the Spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy And if Prelacy were proved never so unlawful no doubt but by the Kings Command we may swear or perform formal Obedience to a Prelate Read Bradshaw against Can concerning this Pag. 181. Christ Direct 2d Edit Of the Holiness of Churches Q. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers Holy And what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by Man for Holy uses are Holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more Holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more Holy than those justly separated by Man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its Holiness And this expressed by such Signs Gestures Actions as are fittest to Honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in the Church and use reverent Carriage and Gestures there doth tend to preserve due Reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the Power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials We flatly affirm that the Kings Laws do bind the Mind Soul or Conscience to a conscionable performance of all his lawful commands Apol 4. We are so tender of obeying our Rulers that we will do any thing to obey and please them except disobeying God Page 111. We doubt not but Magistrates may restrain false Teachers from seducing others and drawing them to Sin Of Episcopacy Page 193. Princes and Rulers may for Orders sake distribute their Christian Kingdoms into Parishes which shall be the Ordinary Bounds of particular Churches And such distribution is very Congruous to the ends of the Ministry and Churches and conduceth to Order and Peace Non-confor Plea Pag. 31. When Pastors by Concord or Magistrates by Laws have setled lawful Circumstances or Accidents of Church Order or Worship or Discipline though they be in particular but Humane Institutions it is sinful Disobedience to violate them without necessity as Parochial Order Associations Times Places Ministers Scripture Translations c. Page 49. God's Laws bind us to keep Love and Concord and the Agreement of Councils may determine of the matter in alterable Points and so absent and present Bishops may for Concord sake be obliged by God's Law to keep such Canons and they are matter of Duty Page 266. The true interest of a meer Non-conformist requireth him to live in Loyalty Peace and Patience and in Love and Communion with the Parochial Churches Page 251. N. 11. I deny not but Magistrates may moderately drive Men to hear God's Word and to do the immediate Duties of their Places Of Episcopacy Page 144. Those Modes or Circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the Publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the Publick Worship Of the Surplice Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not aliene work but his own work amiss and therefore the thing in it self being lawful I would obey him and use that garment if I could not be dispensed with Yea though secondarily the whiteness be to signifie purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would I obey And see no reason to scruple the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage for though the Papists make a Sacrament of Marriage yet we have no reason to take it for any Ordinance of Divine Worship more than the solemnizing a Contract between a Prince and People All things are sanctified and pure to the Pure And for Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's Worship they being a help partly naturally and partly artificial to the exhilarating the Spirits for the praise of God I know no argument to prove them simply unlawful but what would prove a Cup of Wine unlawful or the Tune and Metre and Melody of Singing unlawful Here therefore we thus conclude Page 423. That every misordering of such great Affairs is the Sin of them that do it yet the Subject is not exempted from Obedience by every such mistake of the Governour And § 67. If the Mischoosing of such Circumstances by the Governors be but an inconvenience and destroy not the Ordinance it self or frustrate the ends of it we are to obey for he the judge of his own Works and not we The thing is not sinful though inconvenient Page 398. Of Five Disputations § 25. Prop. 12. It may be very Sinful to command some Ceremonies which may lawfully yea must in duty be used when they are commanded And Prop. 14. Certain things commonly called Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church upon humane imposition and when it is not against the Law of God no Person should disobey the command of their Lawful Governours in such things If the Prince command one thing not contrary to God's Law and the Pastors command the contrary we must obey the Prince before the Pastor We must obey the Magistrate We know not that their Commands are lawful as long as we have no sufficient Reason to believe them unlawful Page 356. of Holy Common-wealth and Page 357. Of Holy-Days The Holy Doctrine Lives and Sufferings of the Martyrs and other Holy Men hath been so great a Mercy to the Church that for any thing I know it is lawful to keep Anniversary Thanksgiving in remembrance of them and to encourage the weak and provoke them to constancy and imitation No Christian should refuse that which is lawful nor to joyn with the Church in Holy Exercises on the days of thankful Commemoration of the Apostles and Martyrs and Excellent
Instruments of the Church much less pertulently to work and set open their Shops to the offence of others but rather to perswade others to imitate their Holy Lives to whom they give such honours Chr. Direct p. 167. Part. 3. Nor do I scruple to keep a day in remembrance of any eminent Servant of Christ or Martyr to praise God for their Doctrine or Example and honour their Memorial I am resolved if I live where such Holy-days Christ's Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and such like are observed to censure no Man for observing them But if I lived under a Government that peremprorily commanded it I would observe the outward rest of such a Holy-day and I would Preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in God's Worship yea I would thus observe the day rather than offend a weak Brother or hinder any Man's Salvation much more rather than I would make any division in the Church Of the Cross in Baptism Of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have more suspected to be simply unlawful than the Cross in Baptism yet I dare not peremptorily say that the Cross in Baptism is unlawful nor will I condemn Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it more than my own forbearance will make I presume not to censure them that judge it lawful but only give the Reasons that make me doubt and rather think it to be unlawful though still with a suspicion of my own Understanding P. 123. of Christ Direct Q. 49. May one offer his Child to be baptized with the sign of the Cross the use of Crisme and the white Garment Milk and Honey or Exorcism as in the Lutheran Churches Answ 4. When he cannot lawfully have better he may and must offer his Child to them that will so baptize him rather than not at all because Baptism is God's Ordinance and the Sin is the Ministers and not his Another Man 's sinful mode will not justifie the neglect of our Duty else we might not joyn in Prayer or Sacrament in which the Minister modally sinneth i. e. in none Mr. B. grants p. 161. of Christ Direct Edit 2. That it is not unlawful to make an Image to be objectum vel medium excitans ad Cultum Dei an object of our Consideration exciting our Minds to worship God as a Death's-head or Crucifix to stir up in us a worshipping Affection and that it is lawful by the sight of a Crucifix to be provoked to worship God I durst not to have reproved any of the ancient Christians that used the Sign of the Cross meerly as a Professing Sign to shew the Heathen and Jews that they believed in a Crucified Christ and were not ashamed of his Cross Of Church Government p. 404. Mr. Baxter's Judgment concerning Confirmation agreeable to the practice of the Church of England may be seen in a particular Treatise on that Subject Of Conventicles Q. 172. Are all religious and private Meetings forbidden by Rulers unlawful Conventicles Answ 1. It is more to the Honour of the Church and of Religion and of God and more to our Safety and Edification to have God's Worship performed solemnly publickly and in great Assemblies than in a corner secretly and with few 2. It is a great mercy where Rulers allow the Church such Publick Worship 3. Caeteris paribus all Christians should prefer such Publick Worship before Private and no private Meetings should be kept up which are opposite or prejudicial to such publick Meetings And therefore if such Meetings or any that are unnecessary to the ends of the Ministry the Service of God and good of Souls be forbidden by lawful Rulers they must be forborn And it must be remembred that Rulers that are Infidels Papists Hereticks or Persecutors that restrain Church-Meetings to the injury of Men's Souls must be distinguished from pious Princes that only restrain Hereticks and real Schismaticks for the Churches good 2. And that times of Heresie and Schism may make private Meetings more dangerous than quiet times And so even the Scottish Church forbad private Meetings in the Separatists days of late And when they do more hurt than good and are justly forbidden no doubt in that case it is a duty to obey and to forbear them P. 117. of the first Plea If the generality of the Ministry obtain their Liberty by some small tolerable Sin or Errour and the sounder part be few and unnecessary in that Country Prudence bindeth them to go to some other place that needeth them and never to exercise their Ministry in that place where in true Reason it is like to do more hurt than good Holy Common-wealth Thesis 240. It is necessary to the Churches Peace that no private Congregations may be gathered or Anti-Churches erected without approbation or Toleration from the Magistrate If private Assemblies be permitted promiscuously and unlimitedly it will then be impossible to restrain Heresie and Impiety yea they may meet to plot against the Magistrate And no Assemblies whatsoever besides the Parish Churches are to be allowed by the Magistrate It is a dangerous thing to be ensnared in a Sect it will before you are aware possess you with a feaverish sinful Zeal for the Opinions and Interest of that Sect it will make you bold in bitter Invectives and Censures against those that differ from you it will corrupt your Church-communion and fill your very Prayers with Partiality and Human Passions it will secretly bring Malice under the name of Zeal into your minds and words In a word it is a secret but deadly Enemy to Christian Love and Peace Let them that are wiser and more Orthodox and godly than others shew as the Holy Ghost directeth them James 3. 13 14 c. out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying or zeal and strife in your hearts Glory not and lye not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devillish P. 36. of the Defence The interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by keeping up as much of Truth Piety and Reputation as is possible in the Parish Churches Sacril Desertion p. 92. In Parish-Churches where all may hear the Parish Minister I would not have you without necessity to preach the same hour of the day but at some middle time that you may not seem to vye with him for Auditors nor to draw the People from him but let them go with you to hear him and after come to hear you Saints Rest p. 518. Do not meet together in opposition to the Publick Meeting nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are a Member nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hope of reforming it The